Wave & Buy By Phone, London

Having written about the concept of swipe by phone before, we picked up on the news that the Transport For London, Nokia and mobile operator O2 were planning to launch a phone that lets people swipe it to enter and leave the London Underground system.

Tube travelers are already using the Oyster card to swipe and go - and now they won’t need to bang their wallet or purse against the sensors at the gates - but just their phone instead. The phone will also incorporate the Visa PayWave system to allow contactless payments. The Guardian reports:

The launch would mark a significant expansion of the Oyster card scheme already used by London Underground, which allows travellers to pay for all their journeys using a single swipe card. That project has recently been expanded to incorporate new technologies such as the Visa PayWave card, which combines a credit card, Oyster card and “contactless” payment system which can be used to authorise small purchases at some retailers.

Nokia’s contactless system is likely to use a microchip inside the phone, which activates whenever it is passed over an Oyster card reader. The price of the journey would be deducted from a top-up account or added to the traveller’s monthly phone bill. The scheme could pave the way for mobiles to be used as payment on other forms of transport elsewhere in Britain.

Guardian